duesentrieb

@illuminarti: Thanks for your answer. So then it is hardcoded. Problem solved. I did not change anything. Also the comments in brackets are original. This is the gcode that has been in this version of Cura from the beginning. I think it is for an Ultimaker. What kind of start gcode do you use? Some parts of it are useful. When starting a print, it lifts the nozzle, moves a bit to the right, and backwards, brings the nozzle down again and starts the print. So I will uncomment M104 S220 T0 and maybe stick my nose more into gcode to understand it completely. Is there a guide or post about the most common gcode for 3D printers?

Thanks for your replies. I will install a newer version of Marlin tonight, after I have finished all the print jobs. Then the retraction bug will be fixed. Yes uploading with Cura is definitely easier, than the "normal way" via Arduino IDE etc. Thanks for the link. First I was skeptical, but now I like Cura a lot, but I miss some slicing Options I know from Slicer, like honeycomb, detailled settings for support etc. Any possibility getting these in Cura or is slicing with Slicer and printing via SD card the only other option? @gr5: True, too many manufacturers etc. I did not try that many different types of PLA yet, they differ, but not that much. And you are right, there are a lot of variables that have to be thought of. But maybe this is too academic. Maybe even some thumb rules would help. But this surely exists, but I haven´t read yet. I just did the test you did with the two towers and lowered the temperature. But with different results. One was completely free of stringing, on the other I had stringing. It was fewer, when I lowered the temperature, but even at 175° it was still there. I would post a picture, if it is of any use... The other settings were: Speed 30mm/s Layer height 0.1mm Travel speed 175mm/s Temperature: started at 220°C lowered it until 175°C Strange. Maybe a reason because of the firmware, or fan shroud? I will keep experimenting until the stringing is gone... The Z-endstop adjustment looks fine, but I could not print out the STL. When I opened it in Cura, the screen remained empty and printing time was still zero...Slicer crashed on opening it. Even after repair with netfabb it did not work out. Strange. So I printed out another Z-endstop adjustment, which I will install in a second. Currently I am thinking about a printing bed mount with handknobs and ony three screws for leveling and stronger strings. This makes leveling out and eliminating tilt easier than with the original 4 screws. Maybe I will find something on youmagine or thingiverse, or I will design something myself and maybe upload it. @illminarti: Regarding the double heat up problem, the temperature is being set to 220°C, no matter what I set in Cura before. So I have to set it down each time manually. Getting on my nerves... Hard coded start gcode makes sense, but I did not change anything there and did not find an extra M109 command there. This is my start gcode: M136 (enable build) M73 P0 G162 X Y F2000(home XY axes maximum) G161 Z F900(home Z axis minimum) G92 X0 Y0 Z-5 A0 B0 (set Z to -5) G1 Z0.0 F{travel_speed}(move Z to '0') G161 Z F100(home Z axis minimum) M132 X Y Z A B (Recall stored home offsets for XYZAB axis) G92 X152 Y72 Z0 A0 B0 G1 X-141 Y-74 Z40 F{travel_speed} (move to waiting position) G130 X20 Y20 A20 B20 (Lower stepper Vrefs while heating) M135 T0 M104 S220 T0 M133 T0 G130 X127 Y127 A127 B127 (Set Stepper motor Vref to defaults) ; Sliced {filename} at: {day} {date} {time} ; Basic settings: Layer height: {layer_height} Walls: {wall_thickness} Fill: {fill_density} ; Print time: {print_time} ; Filament used: {filament_amount}m {filament_weight}g ; Filament cost: {filament_cost} M73 P0; ; -- end of START GCODE -- Another error which occured three times today was, that suddenly the heater went off because of the setpoint was set to zero by the printer and I could not change it. The printer was still printing, but without extrusion. And the Ulticontroller was flickering. After powering it off and pulling the USB cable it worked normal again. Looks like a strange software problem. Anybody had this before. Any ideas? Sorry for asking so much, but all I do right now, except for working is printing. Totally like that machine. Thanks, Philip

Thanks for your fast and helpful replies. That helped a lot. I am useing the firmware that came with the printer from factory and haven´t flashed a newer version. My actual settings are: Layer height: 0.2 mm Print speed: 50 mm/s Printing temperature: 210° C Retraction speed: 45 mm/s Retraction distance: 4.5 mm Travel speed: 175 mm/s ( I also tried 250 mm/s, worked fine, without skipping or offset, but reduced it a little bit again) You gave me a lot of good starting points. So no stringing is a combination of different matching settings, which are individual for each filament too. Did not know that before. Thanks for the detailed explanation iluminarti.So I will make an Excel sheet with the optimum values I found. First I will print out that bowden clip. I have one on the hotend side, but none on the extruder side. Second I will try to lower the temperature and print speed to find out the lowest still working configuration and then higher the values a bit. By the way lowering temperature, when I set a lower temp for the print in Cura, it takes this value, heats up the bed up to it, but when it is reached, it changes the target value to 220°C and starts as 220°C is reached. Another bug or any wrong setting from my side? I did not have a problem like this with pronterface on the MendelMax. As Retraction speed I will use 35 mm/s, as mentioned. Firmware, any possibility to find out which one I have and where to get the newest? Installation will be done via Arduino IDE, I think. @gr5: I will read your post just after finishing writing. Looks like a very helpful one. Thanks. Also I had a quick look at the Esteps post. Have to read it in detail again. I am not yet sure how much the values differ on each type of filament, but maybe a database of settings would be a good thing for getting people started quick. Of course, when you have the experience you don´t need it anymore and one setting is not optimized for all kinds of prints... Does anything like this exist? With the fan design, I made good experiences. It has to be well printed, otherwise it will melt because of touching your hotend... So I had to print twice... The first thing I printed was the small Ultimaker Robot, of course. I looked good, but the left side where the cooler is, better than the other. On the right side you could see printed lines on the arms hanging a little bit. I think the reason is that they where in shadow zone caused by the print itself. I also realized this minor error on other prints. There was always a good side, the left where the fan was, and a bad, the right. With the fan duct both sides are printed very good. And you are right iluminarti, I also have the feeling that it reduces airflow, because it is to narrow and the fan to weak, but the airflow is still strong enough for good results. It is better than the original one, but I think there is still space for improvements. Maybe I will do some. I haven´t tried the mentioned fan mount yet. Perhaps I will print one and make a comparison of the two, if anyone interested. Or is this a topic discussed over and over? Regards, Philip

Hello everybody, got my Ultimaker 1 one week ago and I really love this thing. After fixing initial problems like loose belts, pulleys, hotend etc. it just works perfect and is very fast. Even large overhangs and very thin structures are no problem, and the panel is great. I have a MendelMax too, which I built from scratch, but it does not print these results yet. Until now I only changed the fan duct to this one. http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:17768 Much better than the original one. Parts are beeing cooled from all sides. Even large overhangs are no problem with it. Printed out this hollow cube ( http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:158949)%C2%A0%20without%20support%20material,%20and%20it%20looks%20great.%20I%20did%20not%20know%20this%20was%20even%20possible.%20The%20first%20strings%20hang%20a%20little,%20but%20because%20of%20the%20cooling%20fan%20they%20tighten%20themselves.%20Also%20the%20hollow%20pyramid%20was%20no%20problem. But on this hollow Dodecahedron ( http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:86869) I have retraction issues. It looks, like there is a spider web in each hole. I increased retraction speed even to 150mm/s, took it back to 100 now, better than 40mm/s, but not yet perfect. Still a lot to clean up after each print. Any chance to avoid this??? I did not change the Retraction Distance, this is still at 4.5mm, increasing it would cause holes in parts that should be massive, I think. Any experiences, guesses, tips? I am useing Cura with the original firmware and haven´t changed much. Hope you can help. Best Regards, Philip P.S.: Of course I used the search function, but did not find anything solving the problem.